Once Humanhas banned thousands of cheaters, with some receiving massive ten-year suspensions. Developer Starry Studio appears committed to improving the gameplay experience for all players while reinforcing its fair play policies for the future ofOnce Human.
Since its launch, Starry Studio’s survival game has faced multiple controversies. Back in April, for example, someOnce Humanfans criticized the high price of cosmetics. However, the most persistent source of frustration has been cheaters, who are now being targeted by Starry Studio.
In a recentSteam Community post, theOnce Humandeveloper announced it had banned nearly 4,000 players between May 28 and June 29. Of these, 1,014 were penalized for cheating, alt-account and bug exploitation, and griefing other players. Notably, the developer publicly shared the list of banned players, and the standout detail is that most cheaters received 3,600-day suspensions—roughly ten years. Additionally, nearly 3,000 players were hit with temporary bans, the longest lasting 30 days, for language violations.
Once Human Cracks Down on Cheaters
Once Humanrecently announced some intriguing new featuresand teased a promising future in terms of content, but that doesn’t seem to be the only focus for the developer. According to the recent announcement, the team is also working to reduce the impact of cheaters on the player experience. The game now features an updated anti-cheat system developed by reverse-engineering the most common cheats. Moreover, future updates are promised to introduce real-time in-world ban notifications and expanded channels to facilitate reporting cheaters. Other upcoming related features include displaying ban status on player namecards and ban notices on the death screen.
For those wondering, the most common cheats appear to be aimbots, ESP tools, and teleportation. These trends haven’t changed much since 2024, whenover 400Once Humanplayers were banned for ten yearsafter using similar cheats and attempting to exploit in-game bugs and glitches.
The recent wave of bans has been met with mostly positive reactions from the community. Dedicated fans are hopeful that the developer’s firm stance on cheating and its upgraded anti-cheat system will lead to a better in-game environment.Once Humanisn’t the only game dealing with cheaters.Major titles likeCall of Dutyface similar issuesand are constantly working to improve their cheat detection systems. However, as cheat developers continue to adapt to anti-cheat software and algorithms, it remains a challenging task for studios to keep their games free of cheaters.
